Sunday, March 11, 2012

Saint Joseph as the First Knight

Recently I read a fascinating book, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love by Carl A. Anderson and Eduardo Chávez.  I will post more about this book in an upcoming religious book meme post, but one passage in particular inspired me to create the Saint Joseph activity that I’m posting about today.  The authors briefly mention during their discussion of the conquistadors that Saint Joseph is regarded by some to be the first knight, for his role protecting Mary and Jesus from Herod, thereby defending and protecting the church.  I found this idea very intriguing.

So, I wanted to create a simple lesson for my children comparing Saint Joseph to a knight, and highlighting his role as Patron of the Church, as well as Patron of Fathers and Workers.  Fortunately, Vee at Paper Dali has a great coloring page of St. Joseph that also includes his tools.  Update: this coloring page is no longer available as a free resource, but it is included in Vee’s advent coloring bookat her Etsy shop. 

We started by discussing Saint Joseph’s occupation.  We also looked at the photographs of Saint Joseph that Jessica at Shower of Roses used to create her St. Joseph Memory Match Game.

Next, I showed my children photographs of knight armor that my husband took at the museum of the Art Institute of Chicago during our recent trip.  Here is a particularly imposing one.


While my girls were coloring Saint Joseph, we talked about why knights were considered protectors, their role as defenders of the faith, and how Saint Joseph may have carried different implements that could be compared to a knight’s.  This is what we discussed:

sword = saw
shield = ruler
jousting pole = shepherd’s crook or walking stick
armor = faith and halo

My oldest daughter also decided that Saint Joseph did not need armor because he was very strong from hitting nails with such a large hammer!  We talked about the ways he watched over Mary and Jesus and made sure they were safe, especially during their journeys to Bethlehem and Egypt.

Here is the paragraph my seven year-old wrote comparing St. Joseph to a knight (in Spanish).  It translates as: “Saint Joseph is a knight who does not wear armor.  Instead of a sword he uses a saw and instead of a shield he uses a ruler.  He also uses a hammer and knights do not.  Knights use a jousting pole and Joseph has a shepherd’s crook.”


There is much more that could be said about the knight/carpenter symbols that we may discuss next week, or maybe next year.  I hope you find this lesson useful!  Here are the finished coloring pages:

4 comments:

  1. Hi Elisa,

    I found your post linked up at Equipping Catholic Families and came over to read it. Your 7 year old son did a very good job comparing St. Joseph to a Knight. He was Mary and Jesus' protector! St. Joseph, pray for us!

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  2. Me encantó lo que escribió tu niño de 11 años. Entendió perfectamente el mensaje y pudo aplicarlo muy bien. Que Dios siga bendiciendo a tu familia.

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  3. Thank you both for hopping over!

    Readers, I hope you share this lesson with both girls and boys.

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  4. Qué linda manera de ayudar a tus hijos a reflexionar en la figura de San José Elisa!! Me parece muy sencilla, pero al mismo tiempo profunda. Te felicito por esta creatividad!! Por ciero, tengo mucha pena de que nunca te agradecí la hermosa tarjeta de Navidad que nos mandaste, ¡mil gracias por este detalle tan significativo! Este año, nosotros no tuvimos oportunidad de hacer nuestra carta, esperamos hacerla para Pascua. Seguimos en contacto. Gracias por participar en la Fiesta de Enlaces!!!

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